The Leper of Saint GilesThe Leper of Saint Giles
Setting out for the Saint Giles leper colony outside Shrewsbury, Brother Cadfael has more pressing matters on his mind than the grand wedding coming to his abbey. Yet as fate would have it, Cadfael arrives at Saint Giles just as the nuptial party passes the colony's gates. He sees the fragile bride, looking like a prisoner between her two stern guardians, and the bridegroom, an arrogant, fleshy aristocrat old enough to be her grandfather. And he quickly discerns that this union may be more damned than blessed.Indeed, a savage murder will interrupt the May-December marriage and leave Brother Cadfael with a dark, terrible mystery to solve. The key to the killing—and a secret—is hidden among the lepers of Saint Giles. Now, Brother Cadfael's skills must ferret out a sickness not of the body, but of a twisted soul.
At four hundred pounds, Billy Brennan can always count on food. From his earliest memories, he has loved food’s colors, textures, and tastes. The way flavors go off in his mouth. How food keeps his mind still and his bad feelings quiet. Food has always made everything better, until the day Billy’s beloved son Michael takes his own life.
In Michael’s memory, Billy determines to make a difference and undertakes a public weight-loss campaign to raise money for suicide prevention—his first step in an ambitious plan to save himself and others. However, Billy’s dramatic crusade appalls his family, who simply want to get on with their lives.
Despite his crushing detractors, Billy garners welcome allies: his community, a coworker who lost his father to suicide, and a filmmaker with his own dubious agenda, as well as a secret, miniature kingdom that Billy populates with the sub-quality dolls and soldiers he rescues from disposal at the local toy factory where he works. But it is only if Billy can confront the truth of his pain and suffering and the brokenness around him that he and others will see the change they need.
Set in rural, contemporary Ireland, The Weight of Him is an unforgettable, bighearted novel about loss and reliance that moves from tragedy to recrimination to what can be achieved when we truly decide to take a stand.
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